How To Really Check Your Furnace Thermostat & Tell If It Is Working
If your furnace starts to act up, the first thing you should check is the thermostat. Often, issues with the thermostat will make it seem like the furnace is not turning on or working properly. Before trying to diagnose what is wrong with the furnace, start by making sure that the thermostat is working correctly.
#1 Check The Heat Setting
The first thing you need to do is check the heat setting on your thermostat. Make sure that it is switched to "Heat" and is not on "Cool". It is easy for this switch to get accidentally activated and to make it seem like your thermostat is all wonky and blowing out cool air for no reason in the middle of winter. If your thermostat suddenly starts blowing out cool air, the heat setting should be the first thing you check.
#2 Check The Temperature Setting
Second, check and see what the temperature setting is on. Did someone turn the temperature up to 80 degrees? That could be why it feels like your furnace has not turned itself off in days. Or did someone accidentally turn the temperature down to 60? That could be why your furnace is not kicking in even though it is really cold inside of your house. Simply setting the temperature too high or too low can greatly impact how your furnace acts and behaves.
#3 Test The Temperature Settings
If your worry is that the thermostat is not kicking on when it is supposed to, look at the room temperature for a particular room and then set the thermostat five or six degrees over the room temperature. That should be enough of a heat different that your furnace should kick on pretty quickly. If your furnace does not kick in when there is more than a five-degree difference between the room temperature and what your thermostat is set for, you may have a problem.
#4 Check The Time Settings
If you have a programmable thermostat, make sure that you have the right day and time setting. Check and make sure that the a.m. and p.m. are set correctly and are not swapped around. If you have the date and time mixed up, you may be making your house cooler when you want it warmer and vice versa. It's a little thing, but easy to do with a programmable thermostat.
#5 Change Out the Battery
Change the battery in your thermostat. If the battery is low or dead, it will not send the right information to your furnace. Keep in mind that when you change out your battery, your thermostat will most likely return to the default settings and you'll have to program all the information again.
#5 Check The Wires
Finally, check out the wires on the thermostat. See if you can trace the wires all the way from the thermostat to the furnace. This is an especially important step to take if you have done any remodeling or rewiring recently; there is a chance that the wires could have been broken or damaged. If you find a break in the wires, wrap the wires together with electrical tape and see if your thermostat and furnace start working correctly again.
Before concluding that something is wrong with your furnace, really inspect the thermostat and make sure that it is working properly. An ill-working thermostat can make it seem like your furnace has a problem when the issue really lies with the thermostat. If all else fails when testing out your thermostat, manually set the temperature you want and press down on the hold button – this should turn your furnace on and means that your thermostat has a programming issue.
Contact a local furnace repair service for more information and assistance.
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